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Courthouse
comes down
Renovation in full swing
After months of planning and
preparation, the Pickens County
courthouse is now in the most dra
matic phase of its renovation - the
demolition.
Crews began tearing down a
portion of the courthouse Friday
afternoon, March 2, first ripping a
large hole in the rear leg of the L-
shaped building, The structure
came down quickly as the week
rolled on.
The entire rear portion of the
courthouse will be demolished and
a new and much larger addition
will be constructed in its place. The
front portion of the building will be
renovated, including the marble fa
cade.
The project is expected to be
completed in 18-24 months. Dur
ing that time, courthouse opera
tions have been relocated to the
Annex West building at the comer
of E. Church and Richard streets,
and both Court Street and Depot
Street will be closed at various
times.
While voters here initially
okayed SPLOST renovations at
$17 million (not including the $2.7
million earmarked for parking and
debt service), the commissioner
and Pickens County Courthouse
Project Manager Thurman Slone
have since said the project will
come in at $11 million to $14 mil
lion. Damon Howell / Photo
BHIOI
A history of Pickens twisters
Whole county a “tornado alley,”says County Fire Chief
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
My fear of tornadoes didn’t develop until about
five years ago.
Before that, when I lived in Cherokee and Cobb
counties, tornado watches and warnings came and
went without me noticing, and I wish it could be
that way again.
In the recent past, I have been caught in a few
really bad storms, and I have become mom to two
children, the combination of which, I assume, is to
blame for this intrusive, irrational phobia of mine.
Now, adding insult to injury, I live on the west end
of Pickens, the place I’ve heard natives call tor
nado alley.
One trial brought to stand
still following objection to
courthouse site
By Angela Reinhardt
Staff writer
areinhardt@pickensprogress.com
Recently, two Talking Rock men pled guilty in
two separate cases of child molestation.
In one of the cases, proceedings were stalled
following one attorney’s objection to use of the
temporary courthouse located in the Pickens
County Annex West at the comer of E. Chinch and
Richard streets.
A criminal jury trial for Michael Ashley Hurst,
47 of Talking Rock, began in the Annex West
Last week, when the first storm that tore up the
Midwest started marching our way, I could feel the
anxiety settling in, and just as quickly I got angry
with myself. While driving back to the office from
lunch that Wednesday, I brainstormed ways to con
front my fear. This story was spawned from those
thoughts.
As I began researching Pickens County’s tor
nado history, I was very surprised with what I
found. The number of tornadoes here reported by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis
tration (NOAA) is much lower than what I had ex
pected. And the number of tornadoes that have
occurred on the east end versus west end of the
county is more balanced that what I thought it
would be.
According to the Tornado History Project, a
courthouse on February 20.
Hurst was charged with aggravated child mo
lestation.
During the trial, attorney George W. Weaver,
who was representing Hurst, put a wrench in pro
ceedings by objecting to holding the trial at the
Annex West.
Many court proceedings in Pickens have been
relocated to the Annex West during renovation of
the Pickens County Courthouse on Jasper’s Main
Street.
But Weaver argued the temporary courthouse,
which has been signed off for use during criminal
trials by Appalachian Judicial Circuit Chief Supe
rior Court Judge Brenda Weaver, notably the at
torney’s wife, is not a recognized courthouse, and
that using the facility would be a violation of his
client’s right to a public trial.
After Attorney Weaver’s objection, the trial was
moved to the Pickens County Courthouse Annex
clearinghouse of national tornado data gathered
from NOAA, there have been a total of 1,3 81 tor
nadoes in Georgia with a total of 191 deaths and
4,059 injuries from 1950 through 2010.
But since 1950, the Tornado History Project re
ports, only nine tornadoes have touched down or
traveled through Pickens County, including last
year’s tornado on the west end of the county,
which is not yet included in their data.
From those nine tornadoes, 10 people have died
in Pickens, nine from a Palm Sunday tornado out
break in 1994, and one from a 1974 tornado that
went on to kill five others in Dawson County. If
you rate a tornado based on the sheer number of
deaths and injuries involved, these were by far the
two worst tornado incidents in the county’s history.
According to old news reports I found in our
Progress archives, the April 3, 1974 storm was an
F-4 tornado that tore through the east end of the
county, in the Yellow Creek area, leaving nine
families homeless. Harry Roper, 23, was the only
Pickens resident to die that day, but there were 30
injuries, according to NOAA. It was reported
Pickens General Hospital received 23 people as a
result of the tornado. Three were dead on arrival
at the hospital.
Only one Pickens resident is recorded to have
died as a result of the 1974 Yellow Creek tornado.
It remains unclear if the other two dead arriving at
the Pickens hospital were residents of nearby
Dawson County.
The Yellow Creek Church was blown away,
and a building fund was started at Jasper Banking
Company. In our front page report, there is a photo
of what remained of the structure - just a pulpit
and a Bible that were left unharmed, the caption
says.
As bad as the ’74 tornado was, the Palm Sun
day tornadoes in 1994 were much worse. The
worst, in fact.
That day, Sunday, March 27, 1994, two large,
violent tornadoes ripped up the county, carving a
destructive trail from the west all the way to the
east end, according to NOAA.
One family of six was killed in their mobile
home on Hen- See Tornadoes on Page 17A
behind the old courthouse where truancy court was
in session that day. Truancy proceedings were re
located to the Annex West building.
Citing a case law, Purvis vs. The State of Geor
gia, Appalachian Judicial Circuit Senior Assistant
District Attorney Scott Poole said he felt defen
dants would need to go on record giving consent
before the Annex West and possibly the old court
house annex could be used for criminal trials.
Poole said it was unclear at that time as to
whether or not the old courthouse annex had ever
been deemed an official courthouse site.
Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney
Joe Hendricks said he would work with the county
attorney to clarify what constitutes an official
courthouse site in Pickens County.
“Mr. Weaver raised this issue for the first time
this morning,” Hendricks said, “and after the
Annex West has been designated both by the chief
judge and by the See Guilty on Page 17A
Bad decision with pipe
bomb leaves students
jailed, facing serious
consequences
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
Two 17-year-old Pickens High School students
remained in jail Tuesday morning, almost a week
after it was discovered one had made a small pipe
bomb and given it to the other on school grounds
last Wednesday.
Sheriff Donnie Craig said, following an inten
sive investigation, law enforcement officials con
cluded the students did not have any violent plans
for the explosive device, any intended targets or
even a planned use for the crude bomb.
The sheriff described the explosive as small and
not very sophisticated. He said in an earlier inter
view the only person it could have injured was the
person lighting the fuse.
The sheriff said it was a case of one kid “basi
cally tinkering and another kid thinking it was
pretty cool.”
The first student brought the improvised device
to school to give it to the second student, who had
planned to take it See Bomb on Page 17A
Jasperse introduces
legislation to repeal
student weigh-ins
“It's a basic gut thing: Are we
going to let schools be parents or
are we going to let parents be par
ents? ” - Rep. Rick Jasperse
By Dan Pool
Editor
dpool@pickensprogress.com
State Rep. Rick Jasperse introduced legisla
tion last week in the Georgia General Assembly
to repeal the SHAPE Act which requires students
in public schools to be weighed and their body
fat calculated and reported to parents.
Schools are expected to begin weighing stu
dents this academic period. Jasperse, noted his
house bill would not come to a vote this year and
definitely not in time to stop anything during this
academic year.
But Jasperse said, by introducing the legisla
tion, he has gotten the attention of officials ad
ministering the program at the state Department
of Education (DOE).
“We have made the DOE well aware of our
unhappiness with it,” he said in a Progress inter
view Friday, March 2.
Jasperse said he See Weight on Page 17A
Obituaries
- Page 7A
Donald Kirby
Jean Mann
Evelyn Hicks
Lorine McLendon
Helen Eubanks
Wayne Jones
Hugh Cooper, Jr.
William Von Windeguth
This image originated from www. TornadoHistorvProiect. com although the Progress has added the
2011 tornado path. 1.) 1975 2.) 1985 3.) 2011 4.) 1994-F-3 5.) 1994-F-4 6.) 2002 7.) 1959 8.)
1974 9.) 2009. See tornado info chart on page 17A.
Two plead guilty to child molestation
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